Euro-zone

Lord Pearson of Rannoch: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 20 October (Official Report col. 772), whether the euro-zone's trade surplus with the United Kingdom means that more jobs in the euro-zone depend on trade with the United Kingdom than jobs in the United Kingdom depend on trade with the euro-zone.

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Three million jobs in the United Kingdom are dependent upon trade with the European Union. Data are not readily available to calculate an equivalent figure for euro-zone jobs dependent upon trade with the UK.

Live Music

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How they were able to select the venues studied in MORI's survey of live music staged in England and Wales in 2003–04 which did not have a core business of staging live music in arriving at the conclusion, given in a Department of Culture, Media and Sport press release of 25 August, that "an estimated 1.7 million gigs were staged in the past year alone in bars, clubs and restaurants whose main business isn't putting on live music"; and whether they will give details of the calculation.

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The venues included in the sample were randomly selected by MORI, using the Yellow Pages database (yell.com). The venue types from which the sample was drawn were provided by DCMS. These reflected the range of venues where music can be staged, but where the public also go for reasons other than live music. Some public houses may, for example, stage live music on a very regular basis, but they do not exist purely to stage live events. Other forms of entertainment are an option, and the venues could exist with no live music at all.
	The other factor involved in selecting the range of venues to be included was the likelihood of there being any impact on live music provision resulting from the new licensing arrangements. The venue types included in the sample were also those on which the department and, through advice from the Live Music Forum, the industry more generally felt that the new licensing arrangments might, if anywhere, have an impact. The estimated figure of 1.7 million live music events in England and Wales in the previous 12 months, was calculated through first establishing the average number of live music events which venues had staged in the previous year, and multiplying this figure by the estimated number of venues which exist of the types included in the survey.

School Sport Facilities

Lord Moynihan: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the value added tax rating for the building of school sport facilities; and
	What is the value added tax rating for the building of school sport facilities that will also be used by the community.

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The construction of school sports facilities, including those that will also be used by the community, is normally subject to the standard (17.5 per cent) rate of VAT.
	VAT zero-rating does not apply to the construction of a new building intended for use solely by a charitable school unless it is used in the "course of furtherance of business".

Road and Rail Investment

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How public expenditure on improving the road and rail networks in the United Kingdom compares, as a proportion of gross national product, with public expenditure on improving those networks in France, Germany and Italy.

Lord Davies of Oldham: In 2002–03, total public and private investment in Great Britain was £4,228 million for roads and £4,241 million for rail. The total represents approximately 0.8 per cent of UK GDP in 2002–03. No recent reliable comparative data are held for other European countries.

Water Resources: Iraq and Turkey

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have been informed of any meeting between the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources and his Turkish counterpart; whether they have been asked for any assistance in facilitating such a meeting; and what further action they will take to ensure that Turkey consults with downstream riparian states, with a view to the sharing of the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris on the basis of international law.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The UK has not been informed of a meeting between the Iraqi Minister of Water Resources and his Turkish counterpart and has not been approached to facilitate such a meeting. A committee was set up in 1983 between Iraq, Turkey and Syria to agree an equitable water-sharing arrangement but it has not met for a number of years. I have asked our Embassy in Ankara to find out whether there has been any recent dialogue between Iraq and Turkey on the sharing of transboundary water resources.

Passports: Mr Ng

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What compensation they have agreed to pay Mr Ng, a British national (overseas) passport holder who was arrested in August 1999 by Indian authorities and detained in prison after British consular officials told the authorities that his passport was a forgery; and whether they will inquire into the circumstances in which Mr Ng was freed by the intercession of Chinese consular officials.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Mr Ng agreed the level of compensation and settled the claim in 2003. The amount paid is a private matter between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Mr Ng.
	Chinese consular staff in Mumbai contacted the Hong Kong Immigration Department to advise officials there that they were having difficulties with the Indian authorities in securing Mr Ng's release. Staff in the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai subsequently confirmed Mr Ng's passport details to secure his release.

Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will ask the British Embassy in Manama, Bahrain, to monitor the trial of the human rights activist Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja, provisionally scheduled for 16 October.

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Our Embassy in Bahrain is monitoring the Al-Khawaja case. It will continue to do so when the case comes to trial.

National Asylum Support Service

Lord Avebury: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is (a) the total spend of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) in 2003–04; and (b) its budget for 2004–05; and why no accounting information is provided on the NASS website.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The NASS total expenditure consisting of asylum support, administration and grant was £1,124 million for 2002–03. The final out turn for NASS for 2003–04 is not yet available. I will write to the noble Lord again when the 2003–04 accounts have been certified by the National Audit Office.
	The total resource budget for the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) (which includes NASS) in 2004–05 is £1,657 million. The NASS budget is an internal allocation of the overall IND budget and is not published separately.

Freedom of Information Act 2000: Local Authorities

The Earl of Northesk: asked her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they are satisfied that local authority information technology systems are properly prepared, in terms of adequate financial provision and appropriate document retrieval systems, to comply with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 when it comes into force on 1 January 2005.

Lord Rooker: Local authorities take their responsibilities in this area seriously, and are currently completing their annual statements on progress towards e-government targets, which includes a question on the Freedom of Information Act. Further information will be available in the New Year.

Work at Height Regulations

Lord Moynihan: asked her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have investigated the possibility of an exemption for the adventure activities sector from the proposed Work at Height Regulations; and, if so, what was the outcome.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The Health and Safety Commission is still considering its advice to Ministers on the draft Work at Height Regulations. Any advice given will address the possibility of an exemption for the adventure activities sector.

Work at Height Regulations

Lord Moynihan: asked her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have investigated how other member states within the European Union intend to implement the proposed Work at Height Regulations with regard to the adventure activities sector; and, if so, what was the outcome. [HL
	 Question number missing in Hansard, possibly truncated question.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham: To date there is every indication that all member states will transpose the Temporary Work at Height Directive (2001/45/EC) and that it will be applied to all sectors where there are employed persons. How member states implement the directive with respect to adventure activities will be a matter for national legislation and practice and will not become clear until implementation is complete.

Water Fluoridation

Earl Baldwin of Bewdley: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Warner on 7 September (WA 138):
	(a) for what reasons they consider the greater bioavailability of artificially fluoridated water, which was statistically significant in the Newcastle study at 35.22 per cent for 20 subjects, and remained a clear trend when one subject was removed from the calculations, to be small and of no important influence; and
	(b) whether the results of the study were also compatible with the conclusion that artificially fluoridated water was more bioavailable than naturally fluoridated water; and
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Warner on 7 September (WA 138), why they have made no reference to the warning by the authors of the Newcastle study in their section 6 conclusions, that "based on the power of the study to detect differences, some caution is necessary when interpreting the results"; and
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Warner on 28 June (WA 6), whether they will make available the report by the Chief Medical and Dental Officers on the implications of the York review and the Medical Research Council report for policy on fluoridation, including their recommedations on the public consultation process.

Lord Warner: The report by the School of Dental Sciences at the University of Newcastle Bioavailability of fluoride in drinking- water—a human experimental study concluded that, after considering all analyses of the data, there was no evidence for any differences between the absorption of fluoride ingested in artificially fluoridated drinking water, and in drinking water in which the fluoride is present naturally. The size of this study was such that it would be unlikely to conclude incorrectly that there was no difference in absorption if in fact there were a substantial difference.
	The Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Dental Officers did not submit a report on the implications of the York review, but gave advice to Ministers. We do not publish advice.